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Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles

Noel Sickles, along with his lifelong friend, Milton Caniff, changed the face of comics in the 1930s, when they invented a new form of graphic storytelling. They moved away from the simple outline approach then popular, and created a chiaroscuro style that still influences comics artists today. Having blazed a trail through the comics world, Sickles left the medium in favor of a 40-year career as one of America’s most successful magazine illustrators. A regular at Life magazine, his work also appeared in Look, Reader’s Digest, National Geographic, and The Saturday Evening Post.

Born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1912, Noel Sickles was working as a staff artist at the Associated Press when he was assigned to take over the 1930s aviation adventure series Scorchy Smith. Although he only drew it for three brief years, the innovation he brought to the artform is a milestone in the history of newspaper comic strips. Sickles won the National Cartoonist Society’s Advertising and Illustration Award in both 1960 and 1962.

"Born in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1912, Noel Sickles was working as a staff artist at the Associated Press when he was assigned to take over the 1930s aviation adventure series Scorchy Smith. Although he only drew it for three brief years, the innovation he brought to the artform is a milestone in the history of newspaper comic strips. Sickles won the National Cartoonist Society’s Advertising and Illustration Award in both 1960 and 1962."

-Steve Duin, The (Portland) Oregonian

"This massive volume is comprised of two sections, each of which could be a separate book: a detailed biography of the artist by Bruce Canwell, accompanied by copious examples of his various kinds of work; and the complete run of Scorchy Smith, here appearing between covers for the first time. Such lovingly lavish treatment has been accorded few cartoonists, but Sickles, despite his lack of renown, thoroughly warrants it."